***We will be honoring ourselves and our inner strength and rebellion against a misogynistic and patriarchal society. Feel free to bring offerings to La Luna, Coyolxauhqui and your loving intentions and strength. ***

“Coatlicue, Madre de los Dioses, is sweeping on top of the mountain, Coatepec, when she discovers two beautiful feathers. Thinking that later she will place them on her altar, she stuffs them into her apron and continues sweeping. But without her noticing, the feathers begin to gestate there next to her womb and Coatlicue, already advanced in age, soon discovers that she is pregnant.

When her daughter, Coyolxauhqui, learns that her mother is about to give birth to Huitzilopochtli, God of War, she is incensed. And, along with other siblings, the Four Hundred Stars, she conspires to kill Coatlicue rather than submit to a world where War would become God.

Huitzilopochtli is warned of this by a hummingbird and vows to defend his mother. At the moment of birth, he murders Coyolxauhqui, cutting off her head and completely dismembering her body.

Breast splits from chest splits from hip splits from thigh from knee from arm and foot Coyolxauhqui is banished to the darkness and becomes the moon, la diosa de la luna.

Cherrie Moraga: I am writing that wound…That moment when brother is born and sister mutilated by his envy. Here, mother and daughter are pitted against eachother and daughter must kill male-defined motherhood in order to save the culture from misogyny, war, and greed. But el hijo comes to the defense of patriarchal motherhood, kills la mujer rebelde, and female power is eclipsed by the rising light of the Sun/Son. This machista myth is enacted every day of our lives, every day that the sun (Huitzilopochtli) rises up from the horizon and the moon (Coyolxauhqui) is obliterated by his light.

Although I revere Coatlicue, Diosa de la Muerte y La Vida, I do not pray to her. I pray to the daughter, La Hija Rebelde. She who has been banished, the mutilated sister who transforms herself into the moon. She is la fuerza femenina, our attempt to pick up the fragments of our dismembered womanhood and reconstitute ourselves.”

Us gender non-conforming, two-spirited, trans, womyn and womyn ID have first-hand seen the effects of the oppressive patriarchal and misogynistic structures but throughout it all have managed to rise above. The intention of this ride is to come out and surround oneself with strong beings sharing similar experiences in hopes to empower one another through our stories.